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There was a lot of discussion about the init system for 14.04 before it was released, but I cannot find any site that explains the outcome finally.

So is Ubuntu 14.04 using systemd now?

Zanna
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rubo77
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3 Answers3

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Ubuntu 14.04 uses Upstart as the init system, the plan to switch to systemd is planned for 14.10+. There are parts of "systemd" that have been used in Ubuntu for a long time, but for most intents and purposes when people say "systemd" they mean systemd-as-init.

Here's some background info:

Jorge Castro
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14

To show what init process is enabled:

# readlink /sbin/init

By default on 14.04 and 14.10 it's "upstart"

Changing this would involve alot more configuration than just changing this symlink so don't do that. This file is nearly always a simlink. In this case the link path does not start with / so this is a path relative to the symlink file to /sbin/upstart.

To confuse matters systemd is installed for other things but not used as init. It is in /bin not /sbin. But systemd has installed itself as init in man / help, so:

# man init

Brings up docs on systemd (as of Dec 22, 2014) This is very confusing ! You want:

# man upstart

This will give you the docs for init as they should be.

Good luck getting started. (pun ah ah)

user.dz
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John Hall
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    Actually, on my Ubuntu 14.04.2 Server /sbin/init it's an executable binary, so that readlink trick doesn't work. Also, man init gives me upstart man page. Maybe something has changed? – gerlos May 30 '15 at 13:25
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    The readlink /sbin/init didn't work for me on 14.04 either. Just blank output. The man init did the trick. – demisx Aug 30 '15 at 16:30
  • I filed a bug report for the documentation. It sounds like it may have been fixed, and I suspect init was changed to be a hard link rather than a relative soft link which would barely improve boot time. I've since moved on from 14.04 so I can't comment definitively. – John Hall Dec 04 '15 at 14:27
  • Running /sbin/init --version seems to work. I've tested on 1404 and systemd , both return the correct init system – alleyoopster Jun 05 '17 at 09:56
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If you are running Ubuntu vivid (15.04) upstart is still default, but, you can easily switch between upstart and systemd at will, since both packages are installed at present:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SystemdForUpstartUsers

In ubuntu 15.10 systemd is the default, but you still can choose upstart each boottime in the grub menu

rubo77
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